Remington factory synthetic stock...worth bedding?

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Killertraylor

New member
I've purchased a .338 Remington Ultra Mag and it has the factory tupperware stock. The barrel is free floating in the stock. It shoots pretty good - I've shot 10 or so groups through it of handloads and everything has been under an inch and a half with the best groups around .7 inches. I haven't been able to get the heavy bullets (225 and 250's) that I would like to use under an inch. One option is to just keep the factory stock and put a nice layer of duracoat on it.

I drive past MPI custom stocks every day and have had them do a brake on a gun in the past. Their stocks are nice, but they want $725 for one, fitted and glass bedded. I can get the factory tupperware stock bedded for about $200, but am wondering if it's worth it. The other option would be to buy an HS precision for about $250 and possibly have it bedded?

Advice is appreciated - I just want to squeeze a little more accuracy out of the gun.
 
$725 bedeed for an MPI? Wow, that's a lot. I can buy a far better stock from Mcmillan and have it bedded for way less.

Who in the world charges $200 to bed a factory stock? MPI? That is ridiculous. If you mean pillar bedded, I wouldn't waste my money on doing it to tupperware stock.

H-S stocks come with a 2-part epoxy. And instructions. A bit around the recoil lug and tang and you are ready to go. It works.....
 
2mg is exactly right. You can get more for less going elsewhere and there is no way I would pay $200 to bed a factory tupperware stock.
 
I've looked at McMillan - I can get a comparable drop in stock from them for about $500, but if I want them to fit it and bed it, it's $700 - same as MPI. Looks like it takes about 4 months too whereas MPI will have it back to me in a week or two and I like their epoxy paint better. I tried the Bell and Carlson route a few years ago on my Ruger mark II and it fit like crap. I can get their medalist stock for about $250, but the barrel channel will need to be adjusted to fit my magnum contour barrel. I'm guessing the same is true with HS Precision?
 
Nope.
Find an H-S Precision stock with an aluminum bedding block somewhere online and buy it...they go for ~$200. I bought a Remmy PSS stock (built by H-S) for my SPS .243 on another site's classifieds to replace the tupperware.

I did have to use the Dremel to open up around the trigger area to accomodate Remmy's new X-Mark, but it was real easy to do and then the PSS dropped right in, solid.

The PSS had a nice feel to it and it served we well over the few months it took McMillan to build my A3-5 stock. Then I sold the PSS stock for EXACTLY what I paid for it and put on my new MCM...

$200 is money well spent and my rifle shot real good with the PSS. To be frank, if I didn't get a KILLER GREAT deal on the MCM and have it ordered already, I'd probably have kept the PSS...
 
Personally a 338 Ultra Mag that shoots .7 is something I wouldn't put a penny into and count my blessings that I could get one to shoot that well. I'd skim bed it only just to fill any voids in the factory bedding.

AWS
 
Regardless of what you pay for a stock, $80 or less to have it glass bedded. And that is by some of the top in the industry.....
 
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Regardless of what you pay for a stock, $80 or less to have it glass bedded. And that is by some of the top in the industry.....



Can you let me know who? Every "good" smith I see online charges $200 or more to glass bed an action. Hill Country, McMillan, MPI, Christensen...
 
I'm thinking about this here, and maybe my thoughts on pricing are a bit "behind the times", shall we say. I do know for a fact thought, that Kampfeld Custom (who I use almost exclusively now) charges $80-$90. D&D Gunsmiths charge about the same, for a lesser job, though. Mickey Coleman charges more now, probably $150. All will pillar bed for $200 or less, I'm sure.

Regardless, spending that much on a tupperware stock is just not money well spent.

You can bed one yourself, for $20 in materials. Drill "sideways" holes in it so that the bedding will stick........
 
What he said. Have you looked at the Hogue overmolded stocks. Dampen recoil pretty well, $100-200 depending on options. Acra-Glas sells for about $20 for a 2 gun kit. I have bedded factory synthetic stock with pretty good results.
 
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Regardless of what you pay for a stock, $80 or less to have it glass bedded. And that is by some of the top in the industry.....



Can you let me know who? Every "good" smith I see online charges $200 or more to glass bed an action. Hill Country, McMillan, MPI, Christensen...



I wouldn't call those good smiths or even really smiths at all (with the possible exception of Hill Country). They are large companies that are more interested in other things than getting your rifle to shoot better. You might look at a straight shot gunsmithing, allen precision shooting and defensive edge for work on your gun. They are used to dealing with the 338 RUM and know some stuff that could get that gun of yours shooting pretty good. These gunsmiths all regularly post on longrangehunting.com forum and all have some pretty good proof of their abilities.

As for the stock, if you want to try bedding yourself the factory tupperware would be a decent way to try. Otherwise get a HS, McMillian or Manners stock and have one of the guys above do a little work.
 
Thanks, Supermag. That's the type of information I was hoping for. I'll take a look at those guys. My thought upon purchasing the gun was to send to Christensen for a carbon barrel, stock and muzzle brake, but it shot so well with the factory barrel I'm thinking all I want is a better stock (bedded) and maybe a muzzlebrake.
 
To be honest I wouldn't even begin to have a injection molded stock bedded. Glassbedding doesn't stick well to these stocks and turns into a problem later on down the road. If your getting the kind of groups your talking about don't do anything to it unless you have the stock replaced by something like an HS precision stock.

Supermag's is good advice.
 
Killertraylor
Last year I glassed a Rem. 338 mag with the cheap stock. It took me 1 hr and 10 minutes to get the action to fit, before I put the compound in. It was a mess!!

When I was done, I only had 3 thousands forearm movement.
The customer reported back the next week saying that he was very happy with it now.

I guess I should raise my prices the way it sounds, I have only been charging $45.
 
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You can bed one yourself, for $20 in materials. Drill "sideways" holes in it so that the bedding will stick........




2Much hit it right here, Bob nailed it too. Those cheap stocks and bedding material dont go well togather. Your lucky to get it to stick, yea I know guys......your is a great job, but I will tell you those stocks flex way to much and it wont last the life of the rifle. My gunsmith does bedding for 125 bucks, he will bed McMillan, factory wood stocks, HS and wont touch tupperware at all. He feels the money spent on them isnt worth it because of the poor quality of the stocks to start with. He told me one time that "bedding those factory plastic stocks is kind of like polishing a turd, it might look better but wont get rid of the smell"

Look at the resale value of a new take off tupperware stock. Your lucky to get somebody to pay for the shipping to have it. That should tell you something.
 
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Personally a 338 Ultra Mag that shoots .7 is something I wouldn't put a penny into and count my blessings that I could get one to shoot that well. I'd skim bed it only just to fill any voids in the factory bedding.

AWS



My sentiments, exactly. The only thing I would do during the bedding process is to drill many small holes, with enlarged bottom areas, rough up the surfaces to be glassed and degrease with acetone. The holes, will provide some mechanical retention in case the epoxy does not stick well to the plastic used in the stock, and roughing up the surface and acetone will provide as good a surface as possible for the epoxy to bond to the plastic.

The "tupperware" stock is not the perfect material to epoxy, but with the additional provisions made for mechanical retention, it will hold well enough.

I have done this to my Savage "tupperware" stocks and they are holding epoxy fine after 12 years of use.
 
I have MPI's and McMillian's and I am very happy with both. I did my own fit and finish work, glass and pillar bedded for a lot less than that. The Mcmillian took me like 4 or 5 months to get and about a week to finish very happy with the result. The MPI took about a week to get and about 2 weeks to complete very happy with it as well
 
I'm not very handy with that stock fitment stuff. McMillan was 5 months out, so I'm sending it to Hill Country Rifles in Texas. They are going to install the McMillan stock I want, glass bed it, and while they are at it, they accurize it. Shouldn't be getting those crappy .7 groups anymore /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
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